Customers want customizable WinClient SAP GUI

[Former Member]

With all respect to customers (they already invested in WinClient) and latest SAP's silver bullet (Web Dynpro) I'd appreciate decent information about pros and cons of different UI creation technologies.

Here are some of requirements:

- UI should work on WinClient (mandatory) and on WebClient (desired)

- UI components works with non SAP world

- UI could be customized by customers

- UI provides screen pops activated by the system (aka agent's desktop)

PS. Crossposted from SAP GUI forum - there are no replies there yet.

[thomas_jung · Accepted solution]

Here are some of my thoughts on the subject as well as answers to related questions that you sent me offline.

Although there are several UI development technologies that are still supported by SAP (classic dynpro, BSP, etc), there are only a few that that are strategic as we go forward.

First you have Visual Composer. This is modeling only environment (No Coding) that is excellent for building medium complexity applications - such as reports and dashboards. It requires no programming skills making it accessible to power users. It current renders either HTML/JavaScript or Adobe Flex (which runs in the Flash Plug-in in the Browser). It is tied very close to the SAP Netweaver Portal and therefore runs within the clients that the Portal supports.

Moving up from there you have the Web Dynpro Environment. This is tool does allow you to drop to the coding level, although it is still driven my modeling (not just the layout, but the navigation and data flow as well). It also has a greater range of UI controls than Visual Composer has.

You have two flavors of Web Dynpro that you can choose from - ABAP or Java. You can make your choice based upon which language is the best fit for your development group and which provides the better integration to the particual business logic you are working with.

Both flavors of Web Dynpro are currently supported running with the browser. There will also be support in the near future for Windows and Java based clients that render using native controls (check the corresponding OSS notes for release details). We have also shown both flavors running with an Adobe Flex Client - which is a bit farther off. The point of Web Dynpro is that you don't have to change any of our coding or modeling to have your application run in these different clients. New technologies can be introduced and supported with only changes to the runtime renderer.

>UI could be customized by customers

You should read up on the customization/personalization features of Web Dynpro - they are quite extensive. They support renaming elements, hiding them, and changing many other aspects. These features are well documented within the on-line help.

>UI components works with non SAP world

Do you mean business logic from outside the SAP world or other UI technologies? Both ABAP and Java Web Dynpro can consume Web Services as their business model objects. This makes it quite simple to access business logic from outside the SAP World.

>UI provides screen pops activated by the system (aka agent's desktop)

Perhaps some more details would be required to answer this question. Do you want some kind of instant message type functionality?

>Is Web Dynpro for ABAP mature enough to be used in production?

Yes it is quite mature. It is being used within SAP to build next generation business applications. It will be generally available and fully supported when Netweaver 04S goes GA. Personally I have build several large applications within the tool already.

>What upgrades it requires on the customer side?

Web Dynpro ABAP is available as of Netweaver 04S and higher. If your customer is currently running a form of R/3 (4.6, R/3 Enterprise - 4.7, or ERP 2004/ECC 5.0) and upgrade to ERP 2005/ECC 6.0 would be needed. This is the release that runs on top of Netweaver 04S. The same goes for other application releases. Of course you could always run a standalone Netweaver 04S system and write Web Dynpro ABAP applications on top of any release that you can access via RFC.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thomas has answered most of my concerns, thanks (points awarded).

Just a few follow-ups (please comment or correct me if I'm wrong):

- Good starting point for Web Dynpro is http://service.sap.com/webdynpro and Presentations/Exercises for Beginners/Expert there.

- Most customers already upgraded to Netweaver 04S, it is recommended and pretty straightforward.

- IM like functionality (flashing buttons, pushed text, etc.) is possible (using SOAP subscription to the external events?).

--

Thanks again,

Sam Mesh

[thomas_jung · Accepted solution]

>Good starting point for Web Dynpro ...

That isn't a bad starting point. However there are actually even more tutorials on SDN under the Application Server->Web Dynpro Area.

>Most customers already upgraded to Netweaver 04S, it is recommended and pretty straightforward.

Not exactly what the question is here. If you are asking if most customer have upgraded to 04S - then the answer is No. 04S is just about to come out of Ramp-Up (restricted shipment). You can code Java Web Dynpro on Netweaver04 however.

On the other hand if you are asking about the recommened UI technology - then yes Web Dynpro is SAP's recommend UI strategy for applications where you need to include coding.

>IM like functionality (flashing buttons, pushed text, etc.) is possible (using SOAP subscription to the external events?).

Well you won't get new UI controls (flashing buttons) by consuming a web service.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

> Well you won't get new UI controls (flashing buttons) by consuming a web service.

I mean 'subscribe by exposing yourself as external events handler', sorry for being not clear.

If not SOAP subscription, what could be used to push 'flash button' event into SAP?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

In NW04s there is a Web Dynpro UI element that may be used for polling the server: TimedTrigger.

In a later release, there will be a UI element that may receive events pushed by the server: MessageBaseTrigger. But there is no official release date yet.

Armin

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Points awarded (Very helpful answer), thanks.

Am I right thinking that MessageBaseTrigger will be the right way to implement interactive Web Dynpros for events from external systems (not TimedTrigger for Web Dynpros and CL_GUI_TIMER for Dynpros)? No similar functionality for regular Dynpros?

[Former Member]

Hi Sam,

You can meet all your requirements with web dynpro.

Web dynpro is client independent, thin, works with non-sap backgrounds like java, web services, you can customize the screen, you can have pop-ups, you can also implement eventing.

Follow this link for more information on all kinds of UI technologies SAP Offers:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw2004s/helpdata/en/e7/c7af3fda5a3c17e10000000a114084/frameset.htm

Please see the following text:

Different technologies are available as part of the SAP Web Application Servers for displaying an application to users. Which option is used depends on the application that you want to run. When planning your project, you can decide which UI technology you want to use based on the technical prerequisites as well as the requirements for the planned application.

The SAP GUI for Windows and for Java

SAP applications from older releases are usually programmed using dynpro technology. To display applications that were programmed using dynpro technology, a separate software packet is installed on the user’s PC, the SAP GUI for Windows or for Java.

The SAP GUI for Java is also a user interface for displaying dynpro-based applications and is also installed locally on the user’s PC. Unlike the SAP GUI for Windows, the SAP GUI for Java does not depend in the local PC’s operating system. You can find information about the SAP GUI for Java in Note 146505.

The SAP GUI for HTML / Internet Transaction Server

The increasing development of the World Wide Web meant that it became necessary to enable existing applications based on dynpro technology to be called using standard browsers via HTTP. The Internet Transaction Server (ITS) and the SAP GUI for HTML were conceived for this purpose. However, in addition to the flow logic technology and the SAP GUI for HTML, there are also additional implementation models for the ITS.

The ITS consists of a separate software packet that is downstream of the actual backend, which enables the backend server to communicate with the Internet. With Release 6.40 of the SAP Web AS, the SAP GUI for HTML technology and the IAC technology were integrated in the Web Application Server, so that a separate ITS is no longer required for this.

Web-oriented Programming Model

Release 6.10 of the SAP Web Application Servers offered programming of Business Server Pages (BSP) for the first time. This programming model is fundamentally different to dynpro programming, and enables an application to be displayed via an HTTP connection using a standard browser. The application-specific display software does not, therefore, need to be installed on the user’s PC.

With Web Dynpro for ABAP, the SAP Web Application Server provides a new programming model based on the Model View Controller principle as of Release 7.0. The architecture of this model is identical to that of the Web AS ABAP and the Web AS Java. Applications that were created using Web Dynpro for ABAP are also displayed using a standard browser on the user’s PC.

You can also send me a mail, I can send some more documents on web dynpro UI technology, to peddisetty@gmail.com,

Thanks,

Raj.